For those looking to get to grips with Benchmarking - check out the hampreston.com blog which has got a series of benchmarking articles covering the topic - including getting best practice through benchmarking
There's lots of application for supply chain professionals with regard to benchmarking - especially understanding how your peers are leveraging technology to develop efficiencies.
Thanks to valuestreamguru on twitter for the link.
Benchmarking is a really good opportunity to compare practices with like minded organizations - knowing how other companies perform can help promote improvements in your own - personally I've seen how technology like Purchase to Payment or other B2B systems have really taken off as a result of benchmarking - seeing how other companies leverage technology is often a great launchpad for how such processes can be used in your own company.
For more information check out this introduction to benchmarking which includes a benchmarking ppt presentation
Over at Valuestreamguru.com they've got a example post of how to use a excel radar chart for visual management - I've often used radar charts when looking at supplier performance as it's a great way of looking at how suppliers are performing within thier commodity or peer community - so go check it out!
Valuestreamguru.com, a site focusing on Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen has launched it's own Squidoo lens - featuring the latest news and video's on the world of lean the lens can be found at www.squidoo/valuestreamgurusquid
Value stream mapping is becoming an ever increasingly popular tool in mapping out information and material flow within the supply chain.
I've seen it used a number of times to trap inventory bottlenecks or to analyse and plan reduction in leadtimes - its easy enough to learn and can produce some interesting results.
An interesting thing to learn though is that there is actually seven value stream mapping tools - each designed to help understand the flow within the business - not sure whether they can all be applied to supply chain but interesting enough to warrant some further research.
For those interested in Kaizen - Valuestreamguru has launched thier Kaizen Hub, a portal bringing together information on Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing and Lean into one helpful page.
A great idea for anyone starting out on Kaizen and looking for a jumping off page - go take a look!
We all know that one of the key things for any organization is that it runs effeciently - Business effeciency faciliates more products for less cost. Effeciency is a key indicator for supply chain as it demonstrates effective management of the supplying organization - and can also foster lower levels of stock and resource - and by default shorter leadtimes.
To read about the relevancy of effeciency and its impact on inventory - check out this great article from RM Donavon: http://www.idii.com/wp/donovan_inv_eff.pdf
